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Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study
BACKGROUND: Food allergy (FA) affects up to 10% of children globally, with clinical symptoms varying from mild to severe, and in rare instances, it is life-threatening. Approximately one in five children with FA experience a food-induced allergic reaction in school, leaving teachers as the first lin...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10008333/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36882233 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001795 |
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author | Madooh, Latifah Allahou, Shaikhah Alshallal, Haya Alkazemi, Fatemah Alyaseen, Dina Allahow, Farah Alsattam, Shahad Al-Majran, Abdullah Ziyab, Ali H |
author_facet | Madooh, Latifah Allahou, Shaikhah Alshallal, Haya Alkazemi, Fatemah Alyaseen, Dina Allahow, Farah Alsattam, Shahad Al-Majran, Abdullah Ziyab, Ali H |
author_sort | Madooh, Latifah |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Food allergy (FA) affects up to 10% of children globally, with clinical symptoms varying from mild to severe, and in rare instances, it is life-threatening. Approximately one in five children with FA experience a food-induced allergic reaction in school, leaving teachers as the first line of intervention. This study aimed to assess kindergarten teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding FA. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled kindergarten teachers in Kuwait using stratified cluster sampling. The Chicago Food Allergy Research Survey for the General Public was used to assess teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding FA. The overall FA knowledge score was calculated for each participant. The χ(2) test was used to assess the differences in the distribution of categorical variables. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 882 public kindergarten teachers from 63 kindergartens. Most teachers (81.9%) encountered students with FA in their classrooms. Only 13.5% of the teachers reported receiving training in FA. Overall, participants scored an average of 52.2% on the FA knowledge assessment, with participants receiving prior training in FA scoring on average higher than those with no prior training in FA (55.9% vs 51.6%, p=0.005). A few teachers (10.7%) were aware that lactose intolerance was not equivalent to milk allergy. In terms of attitudes regarding FA, only 14.9% of the participants acknowledged that children with FA are teased/stigmatised due to their condition, and 33.7% recognised that avoidance of allergenic food is difficult. Moreover, only 9.9% of the teachers self-reported their ability to use an epinephrine autoinjector. CONCLUSIONS: Improved knowledge and awareness of FA among public kindergarten teachers in Kuwait are needed to ensure the safety of children with FA in schools. Teachers should be trained to prevent, recognise and manage FA-related allergic reactions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10008333 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100083332023-03-13 Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study Madooh, Latifah Allahou, Shaikhah Alshallal, Haya Alkazemi, Fatemah Alyaseen, Dina Allahow, Farah Alsattam, Shahad Al-Majran, Abdullah Ziyab, Ali H BMJ Paediatr Open Epidemiology BACKGROUND: Food allergy (FA) affects up to 10% of children globally, with clinical symptoms varying from mild to severe, and in rare instances, it is life-threatening. Approximately one in five children with FA experience a food-induced allergic reaction in school, leaving teachers as the first line of intervention. This study aimed to assess kindergarten teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding FA. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled kindergarten teachers in Kuwait using stratified cluster sampling. The Chicago Food Allergy Research Survey for the General Public was used to assess teachers’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding FA. The overall FA knowledge score was calculated for each participant. The χ(2) test was used to assess the differences in the distribution of categorical variables. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 882 public kindergarten teachers from 63 kindergartens. Most teachers (81.9%) encountered students with FA in their classrooms. Only 13.5% of the teachers reported receiving training in FA. Overall, participants scored an average of 52.2% on the FA knowledge assessment, with participants receiving prior training in FA scoring on average higher than those with no prior training in FA (55.9% vs 51.6%, p=0.005). A few teachers (10.7%) were aware that lactose intolerance was not equivalent to milk allergy. In terms of attitudes regarding FA, only 14.9% of the participants acknowledged that children with FA are teased/stigmatised due to their condition, and 33.7% recognised that avoidance of allergenic food is difficult. Moreover, only 9.9% of the teachers self-reported their ability to use an epinephrine autoinjector. CONCLUSIONS: Improved knowledge and awareness of FA among public kindergarten teachers in Kuwait are needed to ensure the safety of children with FA in schools. Teachers should be trained to prevent, recognise and manage FA-related allergic reactions. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10008333/ /pubmed/36882233 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001795 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Epidemiology Madooh, Latifah Allahou, Shaikhah Alshallal, Haya Alkazemi, Fatemah Alyaseen, Dina Allahow, Farah Alsattam, Shahad Al-Majran, Abdullah Ziyab, Ali H Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study |
title | Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study |
title_full | Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study |
title_fullStr | Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study |
title_full_unstemmed | Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study |
title_short | Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in Kuwait: a cross-sectional study |
title_sort | food allergy knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of kindergarten teachers in kuwait: a cross-sectional study |
topic | Epidemiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10008333/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36882233 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001795 |
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